Conventional sources of information for development and maintenance of computer system regarding its usability, include its end users, e.g. in beta sites, testing groups, and professional observers operating in usability labs. Collection of this usability information is typically performed manually and non-systematically and consequently suffers from defects such as disregarding a multiple of seemingly minor usability problems.
Prior art regarding the usability of computerized systems include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,964 to Nickle, U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,393 to Kerr et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,658 to Kerr et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,330 to Coskun and Tate, U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,789 to Parker et al., Published European Application 0 687 988 A2 (95303298.4) to AT&T, and Published PCT Application WO 95/16949 to Software Publishing Corporation.
Other prior art systems and technologies are described in the following U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,249 to Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,316 to Kershaw et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,291 to Boulton et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,611 to Clark and Bramlett, U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,994 to Kershaw and Romano, U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,615 to Clark, U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,544 to Clark et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,057 to Fletcher and Ruuska, U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,684 to Dudzik et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,958 to Potts and Vershel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,422 to Chiang et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,667 to Bieniek et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,358 to Blades and Kiel.
The disclosures of all publications mentioned in the specification and of the publications cited therein are hereby incorporated by reference.